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Abstract Title: Strategies for building a welcoming STEM classroom environment for all students
Abstract: We have designed, implemented and assessed a series of pedagogical strategies that seek to improve the climate of large introductory STEM courses and promote accessibility to students from all groups and backgrounds. These strategies rely on deliberating fostering collaboration among students, rather than competition, and promoting a culture that rewards effort and personal growth. Among others, study-halls emerged as an especially powerful tool to achieve these goals:  by regularly sitting and working around a table with their students, instructors can dramatically improve the inclusivity and climate in the classroom. We have collected and analyzed students' responses to our approach in a large introductory physics course over several semesters. We report that our strategies are successful in building a course community, in which students, regardless of demographic, perceive a welcoming atmosphere and feel supported and cared for by their classmates and instructors.
Abstract Type: Contributed Poster Presentation
Session Time: Poster Session I
Poster Number: A17
Contributed Paper Record: Contributed Paper Information
Contributed Paper Download: Download Contributed Paper

Author/Organizer Information

Primary Contact: Claudia De Grandi
Yale University
New Haven, CT 06511
Co-Author(s)
and Co-Presenter(s)
Simon Mochrie, Yale University
Rona Ramos, Yale University

Contributed Poster

Contributed Poster: Download the Contributed Poster